“Boys smell bad.”
“Not being able to be a mother.”
“Not suppost (sic) to cry.”
When a group of nine and ten-year-olds were asked to list the things they didn't like about being a boy, they gave some surprising - and some not so surprising - answers.
But what really stands out from the list is just how ingrained gender roles are from such an early age and how hard it can be to deviate from them - for both boys and girls.
'What I don't like about being a boy were:
- Not being able to be a mother
- Not suppost to cry
- Not allowed to be a cheerleader
- Suppost to do all the work
- Suppost to like vilence
- Suppost to play football
- Boys smell bad
- Having a automatic bad reputation
- Grow hair everywhere"
While the image resurfaced this week as part of International Men's Day, it was actually first posted to Twitter a year ago after it was shown at a White Ribbon workshop in Canada.
According to their website, White Ribbon "is the world’s largest movement of men and boys working to end violence against women and girls, promote gender equity, healthy relationships and a new vision of masculinity."
The list was made as part of an exercise run by Jeff Perera where he spent the day with fifty young boys, discussing gender roles.
On his website, Jeff gave some background on the boy who complained of “not being able to be a mother’:
“He explained that when you see commercial for a baby dolls, it’s always girls playing with the dolls and how boys don’t get to be mothers.
"I said “…but you could be a Father? That’s what you could do…be a dad!”
"He looked at me with a confused face as if I just spoke in another language.
"My mind raced as I wondered just how many of these fifty boys had physically-present but not emotionally-present fathers or role-models, or had fathers who were present at all. If they did hang out, they did little more than throw the ball around.
"We need more Maps to Manhood.”